A fall out between US President Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart President Gustavo Petro over illegal immigrants has come to a resolution after illegal immigrants were sent to Bogota in military planes.
An all-out trade war between the United States and Colombia erupted after Trump’s radical immigration reforms started to take place.
After the spat, Colombia welcomed its first flights of deported illegal immigrants, with its president heralding their “dignified” return and insisting they are not criminals.
The arrivals are taking place just two days after President Donald Trump threatened crippling tariffs and sanctions on Colombia to punish the country for earlier refusing to accept military flights carrying deportees as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown.
Two Colombian Air Force planes carrying deported Colombian nationals arrived in Bogota early on Tuesday.
One plane, flying from San Diego, California, brought home 110 Colombians and the other, which departed from El Paso, Texas, brought home 91, the Colombian Foreign Ministry said on X.
“They are Colombians, they are free and dignified and they are in their homeland where they are loved,” Colombia President Gustavo Petro wrote on X with images of the migrants disembarking a flight.
“The migrant is not a criminal, he is a human being who wants to work and progress, to live life.”
The Colombian government hailed the returns as Petro fulfilling his commitments and said it is working on a “structured and accessible credit plan” to support the migrants’ reintegration.
This weekend, American officials sent two flights of Colombian illegal aliens as part of Trump’s ongoing deportation program. Petro rejected the flights, writing that the U.S. cannot “treat Colombian migrants as criminals.”
Trump immediately clapped back, writing in a Truth Social post he was going to slap 25% tariffs on all goods from Colombia, a travel ban on Colombian government officials and other steep financial sanctions. He said the tariffs would reach as high as 50% by next week and insisted the migrants being sent back were “illegal criminals.”